Joe Tiller, who earned football stardom as a player at Montana State and as a head coach at Purdue, died Saturday at his home in Buffalo, Wyo. He was 74.

A highly successful head coach who won a Big 10 championship at Purdue and took the Boilermakers to the Rose Bowl, Tiller first found football fame in Bozeman. The Gallatin Valley always was special to him.

“It's not the little college town that it was when I first went to school there in 1960,” Tiller told the Tribune in August, 2016. “Every time I drive into that valley I'm impressed with the beauty of the place.”

Tiller was a top-notch offensive and defensive lineman while playing for Montana State coach Jim Sweeney.

“Those were good times,” Tiller said. “The Cats at that time kind of had the upper hand over the University of Montana. I know that thing has reversed itself. But both of them are competitive today. Though Montana's had the edge at least Montana State has the ability to rear up and beat them. We went for a while there and they couldn't buy a win (16 straight losses to Grizzlies). When I was at Montana State we had good teams.

“I was there once for a spring game and (then head coach) Cliff Hysell asked me to talk to the team. And I told the team, ‘You know I have only one regret when I was a player at Montana State. That we didn't beat (the Grizzlies) four straight years. We only beat them three out of the four.’ "

Tiller said he turned down a job offer at Great Falls High as a teacher and coach to become a Bobcat football assistant coach. He went on to a tremendous head coaching career at Wyoming and Purdue, compiling an overall record of 126-92-1 and taking his teams to 11 bowl games.

Tiller said he learned a lot while playing for Bobcat coach Sweeney.

“He was a stern disciplinarian and very demanding,” Tiller said. “But you know he wanted your best. And if you didn't give it you paid the price. He also always loved his players. That was one of his strengths, and I learned that from him. I was a disciplinarian. I was pretty hard on them and really tried to push them to the limit.”

On Saturday afternoon in Bozeman, Bobcat coach Jeff Choate began his postgame press conference with a tribute to Tiller.

“I want to start off by acknowledging a great Bobcat. Joe Tiller,” Choate said. “I had the opportunity to meet Joe last year at Homecoming. He was at our Friday walk-through. He was a gracious, humble man. For all the things that he accomplished you would have never known it. He was a heckuva football coach and even a better person.

“He was one of the first guys to congratulate us after we beat the Griz last year in Missoula. When I found about that news today it definitely hit me really hard. Bobcat Nation lost a great one.”

Tiller lived in Buffalo the last few years and traveled to games at Purdue, Wyoming and Montana State. He also maintained a relationship with Carroll College coach Mike Van Diest, a former assistant under Tiller at Wyoming.

Tiller landed the Wyoming job several years after he applied for and didn’t get the Bobcat head coaching position in 1987.

Eventually, Tiller and quarterback Drew Brees carried Purdue to rare heights at a school better known for basketball. Together, they led Tiller’s “basketball on grass” spread offense to the 2000 Big Ten title and 2001 Rose Bowl, where Purdue lost to Washington 34-24.

“Coach Tiller was an important person in my life and to so many other guys who played for him,” said Brees, the New Orleans Saints star who played for Tiller from 1997 to 2000. “He did so much more than teach us how to win. He taught us life lessons and how to be great leaders and men.”

Tiller, originally from Toledo, Ohio, was inducted into the Montana State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013. Joe Tiller Drive, located immediately north of Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind., was named in his honor Sept. 19, 2015.

Tiller is survived by wife Arnette; daughters Renee and Julie; son Michael; and grandchildren Paulina, Lily, Gus and Tori.